Launch isn't until Aug 16 or so. Tweaktown decided to get pissy and do an early review. No power measurements, though.

In general, performance is in the HD 7950 to HD 7970 range, unless you max out AA and AF. Then, it's in the HD 7850 to HD 7950 range. Tweaktown says pricing is in the high $200's...other sources say low $300's. Should be an interesting card......................................................................... Post - release reviews ...................................................Most reviews are showing performance in between the HD 7870 to HD 7950. 150W TDP.

It's too bad there were aspects they "haven't tested today like power, noise and heat", but I understand the reason behind it. This is the card (or more accurately chip) I've been looking forward to, but my main concern is not boiling myself alive in the home office. This 100 W setup ambient has been too nice after an overclocked 460.

The core config makes it seem more like a cut down 670 with a 192-bit memory bus. This may mean that power cosumption is not improved by much and therefore a bit too high end to be passively cooled within sensible limits which would make the vanilla 660 a more interesting proposition when it arrives.

My pleasure. Launch pricing here is pretty reasonable - lots at the $300 price point. Techpowerup does a good job. I like The Tech Reports' method for looking at gaming frame time - so you can get a feel for which gpus might have decent fps but also stutter. I love HT4U's noise testing.

Also, HT4U and Techpowerup detail power consumption for multi-monitor and BluRay play. This is one area where the GTX 6xx are doing better than the HD 7xxx.

So really it's just what the numbers suggest: a slightly weaker alternative to the 670 that performs inline with the reduced architecture count, uses a bit less power doing so and costs a bit less. This is somewhat underwhelming because there is nothing new here.

Well, I guess it depends on your point of view. To me, it's $100 cheaper than the 670 with 90% of the performance, provides competition for the HD 7870 and 7950, and is a lower power alternative if you use 2 monitors.

I had to do some enthusiastic reading before I came back to reply. That frame time measurement makes an awful lot of sense, and I had no idea it existed - but it can explain some phenomenons I have run into, same as a high-latency monitor is uncomfortable to play (fast-paced) games on. It's also the last factor that's pushed me into the arms of the 7850!

The 660 Ti looks like a powerful card, even if it is "cut-down" from an even more powerful one, but it's just too expensive for me - I just need "adequate" performance these days, as most cards are quite powerful no matter what, and preferrably at efficient wattage. AMD seems to cater to that.

Frame time: Yeah, the whole long frame time/micro-stuttering thing was an eye opener to me.

Price point vs horsepower vs power consumption: I've been a fan of the AMD cards for a few generations. The 6xx is the first in a while that I've considered instead. I'm still working off of an HD5770 and have been patiently waiting for a better card to appear at a decent price point so I could kick up the gaming resolution/AA/AF/etc and still have good fps. The 7850 card I'd want is still in the $240-250 range and AMD still has lousy 2 monitor power use. The 660 Ti is a little overkill for my current 1920x1080 games...but has decent 2 monitor power. I hate adding a potential 50W to my system load...but it may be my current games don't tax the GPU that much and don't add that much load power. (I remember watching my idle/load power drop when I replaced the venerable 8800GTS with the 5770). So, for another $50 I get decent 2 monitor power, a card that will easily handle my current games and provides a little headroom for the next gen games. Give me a month, I might change my mind again

Anyway, Nvidia still has another, smaller die to bring out in the form of the 550, 550 Ti, and 660...sometime this fall.

The 7850 card I'd want is still in the $240-250 range and AMD still has lousy 2 monitor power use. The 660 Ti is a little overkill for my current 1920x1080 games...but has decent 2 monitor power.

Nvidia is no better when running 2 monitors. Both nvidia and AMD do not downclock in 2D when running two monitors. Up until a week ago I've had GTX260c216 that I ran with low power GT210? one monitor connected to each card just so that my GTX260 would downclock itself in 2D mode. When I went looking to upgrade I did research and it seems the situation has not improved at all, even the latest nvidia 6xx series and AMD 7xxx cards have high idle usage with two monitors connected to them. So I said f it and got single 7950. I was tired of running two videocards and I'm not sure if I was actually gaining anything, yes GTX 260 would downclock itself, but then I just added another videocard to the system for more power draw. Anyway, the point is, if you think nVidia is better at running two monitors, it's not.

IMO at $300 price point 660ti makes no sense. AMD 79xx and 78xx overclock like hell. 7950 is only $20 more than 660ti, overclocked it approaches 680 performance level. 7850 overclocked runs as fast as 660ti or faster. And 7850's have dipped as low as $210 on newegg after rebates a couple of times, just got to watch slickdeals for the sales, get one of those, overclock it, and you're golden.

This was resolved with Kepler. Read the techpowerup or HT4U reviews above.

JazzJackRabbit wrote:

IMO at $300 price point 660ti makes no sense. AMD 79xx and 78xx overclock like hell. 7950 is only $20 more than 660ti, overclocked it approaches 680 performance level. 7850 overclocked runs as fast as 660ti or faster. And 7850's have dipped as low as $210 on newegg after rebates a couple of times, just got to watch slickdeals for the sales, get one of those, overclock it, and you're golden.

<shrugs> But, I don't neeed faster than the 660Ti for my 1080p gaming and it'll drop my multimonitor idle/2D power by 20W as compared to the 6850/70. If I were to get a 7850, it'd be the MSI Power Edition with Twin Frozr IV...and that hasn't dropped below $250 (trust me, I've been staring at 7850's since release). So, for me, $50 adder looks good. As always, YMMV.

Well, some kind of MSI Twin Frozor has hit newegg at $210 after rebate last month. And AMD just lowered MSRP on 78xx series. It might take a little while for the new prices to filter down to the retailers, but you'll probably be able to pick up the version you want close to $200.

Not really sure. The Twin Frozr III on the 7870 has 5 heat pipes, The Twin Frozr IV on the 7850 PE OC has 3 heat pipes and the TF4 on the GTX 660 Ti has 4 heatpipes....and all three coolers have different mechanical dimensions. All three have the form-in-one VRM and RAM heatsink plate...and I think the stiffener/heat sink back plate. The TF4 has the reversing fan at boot for dust removal while the TF3 doesn't.

I'm a bit confused - I had a Gainward GTX 560 "Phantom" which IIRC could only go down to 30% fan speed. But in a review of a GTX 660 I read something about 10% and 20% fan speed. So is it now possible to go lower than 30% on the new 660 series?

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